Important (6 Days Of Christmas 1)
by Hello Supernova
Summary: #1 of my '6 Days of Christmas' series! Spencer Reid gets some company on Christmas Eve! Spencer/OC One-Shot! Merry Christmas!


Important

The young Doctor Spencer Reid had travelled all the way from Quantico to Las Vegas to surprise his mother on Christmas Eve, but it turned out that she was having a bit of a bad time recently, and her doctor told Spencer it would be best for him to leave before her paranoia got the best of her.

So the profiler sat alone at a hotel bar on Christmas Eve, swirling his third, almost empty glass of whiskey in his hand. His mind was turning fuzzy and his body felt warm like it very rarely did anymore, and he thanked the alcohol for seemingly numbing his rapid thought process. _The team_, he managed to think, _would be very surprised to know that I'm drinking_.

Just when he was about to down the remains of his beverage, a small hand nimbly tapped on his shoulder. He jumped a little before turning around to see a woman, as petite as her hand, in a dark, drenched coat that practically swallowed her whole.

"Do you mind if I sit next to you?" She asked softly, resettling her large duffel bag on her shoulder. _She must have left home in a rush_, Spencer deduced, the inebriated state of his mind clearly not enough to dumb him down. He cursed it and asked the bartender to get him another drink before answering the woman.

"Yes, of course," He answered politely, still in control of his speech, "But don't you have anything better to be doing on Christmas Eve?"

The woman smirked, but the typically arrogant gesture looked barely mischievous on her soft features. In fact, everything about her looked soft- from her wet brown locks to her light, watery eyes. _Who in their right mind would want to treat her so badly to make her leave on Christmas?_

"I could ask you the same thing," She countered, and he acknowledged her quick wit with a smile as he shrugged.

"I was meant to visit my mother, but she isn't in a state to see me right now," He disclosed. He was used to his team- especially JJ and Morgan- pushing him to tell him every minute detail of his life, so he was pleasantly surprised when she just nodded like she understood perfectly.

"I left my boyfriend today. I found out he was cheating on me when he left to go visit his _family_ right as I was making dinner," She explained, her hands trembling slightly as she wiped a drop of rain water- _or was is a tear?_- from her cheek, muttering, "I hope the turkey burns down his apartment."

Spencer chuckled despite the sad story. "Well, it seems we're both left alone tonight- why not make the best of it?" He pointed out, and the woman smiled.

She held out her hand. "I'm Gemma," She introduced herself.

"Rei-Spencer," He corrected himself, trying to remember the last time he was just Spencer, not Doctor Reid, the certified genius.

She laughed, wiggling her fingers to remind him that they were out between them. "You're supposed to shake them, Spencer," She said, making him blush and do as she told him quickly.

"Right, sorry," He excused, "I don't typically shake peoples' hands." He thought of all the police officers and detectives he met, how he only ever waved at them, ignoring their outstretched hands.

Her thin eyebrows furrowed. "Why not?" She asked curiously.

_Moment of truth_, he thought. "I uhm, I meet so many new people, I don't really want to pick up all the bacteria. Did you know that 80% of all infectious diseases are transmitted by touch?"

"Oh," She uttered before grinning. "So what's your IQ?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but the words got caught in his throat. "How do you know?" He asked instead.

"My brother," She explained, "He's not into touching either, and he's kind of a genius."

"Your brother?" He repeated, watching as she sat down next to him.

"Timothy Evans?" She tried, "You've probably heard of him. He owns NanoVex."

"Ah, yes. I met him once, actually." He remembered. He had met Timothy before, when he was doubting if his genius was being used efficiently at the FBI. Meeting a college junior who had at that point been revolutionising cancer treatment methods had made him question the past six years of his life completely.

Gemma must've noticed his suddenly sullen look, because she added, "He's kind of pretentious."

Spencer shook his head, not only to answer Gemma, but to clear his head of those thoughts. "No, he was... inspiring, actually. He made me doubt if I was doing too little with my mind," He shared.

"Well, what do you do with that clever head of yours?" She asked teasingly before ordering a drink.

"I'm a... a profiler for the FBI," He told her, stumbling over his words at what seemed suspiciously like flirting.

To his surprise, she laughed. Proper, head-thrown-back, thorough laughter, and Spencer realised he was completely out of his comfort zone. There he sat, talking to a woman he had only just met, and he had made her laugh? She was enjoying the conversation?

Spencer Reid had never been particularly good at talking to women. He had stopped becoming a bumbling fool in the presence of them by then, but he wasn't Morgan- he knew dozens of pick-up lines but his delivery was lacking, he knew what women liked but didn't know _how_ to be a smooth-talking jock. He would rather spend his Friday night with books and various seasons of classic Doctor Who.

He was pulled out of his contemplation by Gemma laying a hand on his arm that rested on the bar. "You're using your mind to save peoples' lives and catch murderers, right?" She asked.

He nodded. "We get involved with rapists and pettier criminals too, but most of the time, yes."

"Then how dare you think you are not doing enough with your mind?" She continued, her voice teasing but gentle. "People who prayed for a saviour in what they thought were their last moments, hoping that someone would hear their cries... They're alive because of you. Because you do what you do, people _live_. Don't ever think you're not doing anything of importance, Spencer."

The genius profiler was lost for words for a moment before he snapped out of it. "What do _you _do?" He questioned, decided not to touch upon the delicate subject anymore than they already have.

She smirked again, and he decided he liked the way her eyes sparkled when she did so. "I'm a writer," She confessed, "I wrote a series on an FBI team- I have a thing for heroes."

"Wait a second- Gemma Evans?" He put together, blaming the alcohol he had consumed for not letting him deduce who he was in the presence of. "You wrote 'Missing Prints', didn't you?"

"Among other things," She agreed, just as the bartender came up to them.

He refilled their glasses. "It just turned midnight- Merry Christmas," He informed them, smiling. "This round is on the house."

Gemma smiled and thanked him before giving Spencer a kiss on the cheek, making him blush faintly, ignoring the purely analytical thoughts swirling through his head that told him that his attraction to the writer he had always admired for her insight on his job was mutual.

"Merry Christmas, Spencer," She wished him, downing her drink in one go and getting up. "I'm going to get myself checked in. Maybe I'll see you again."

Spencer nodded, trying to hide his disappointment and taking a sip of his whiskey as he watched her leave, her now dry locks swaying along with her hips.

"Unless of course," She stated, stopping in her tracks and turning around, "You'd like to join me. I'm sure there'll be some crappy old movie on TV for us to get mind-numbingly bored of."

He stayed sitting for merely a second, his mind racing as he processed her words, before getting up. "There's Doctor Who re-runs running on Channel 4 until 7am," He pointed out randomly, taking her outstretched hand with a smile on his face that was brighter than any he had mustered in a while.

_The team will be very surprised_, he thought in the morning when he woke up next to Gemma, her eyes holding the same twinkle they had when they had discussed the possibility of Gallifrey returning at 3am.

_I might just become normal yet._

* * *

AN: This is the first part to my '6 Days of Christmas' series!

I felt like Spencer needed a little loving, and someone who'd be able to deal with his genius ways, understand his work and be able to hold her own in a discussion about Doctor Who.

(And the Gallifrey thing just had to be in there. It had to.)

Hope you liked it!

- Nova


End file.
